Should the move become law, it will put a stop to the military’s plans to deploy 46 of the fighters to the United Kingdom. Moreover, it could also jeopardize the shared relationship between the U.K. and America.

Pressure to exclude Huawei

The move comes as Washington increases pressure on its allies within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. — to exclude Huawei from their 5G rollout. The U.S. considers the Chinese tech firm a security risk due to its close ties to the Chinese government. (Related: U.S. government proposes CUTTING OFF China’s access to chip technology.)

Back in February, the U.S. accused Huawei of spying through the technological “back doors” supposedly built into its devices — such as cell phones and routers — to allow Chinese hackers to spy on users. Specifically, the company was accused of allowing its equipment to stealthily tap into telecoms normally used by law enforcement.

The U.K. had already granted Huawei partial access to its next-generation 5G network in January. Two other members of the alliance, Australia, and New Zealand, have banned Huawei from their 5G infrastructure. Only Canada has yet to make a decision on the company.

According to Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute specializing in Canadian and American foreign defense policy, Washington’s proposed move could be a push to bring both the U.K. and Canada over to their side.

“When it comes to the U.K.’s decision, as with us, it might be a nudge from the U.S. to change behavior. Post-Brexit, the U.K. might be looking for whatever cards they can play, and I think they’d rather work with the U.S. than the Chinese,” Shimooka said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Shimooka also added that, given the security concerns, Canada would be wise to steer clear of letting Huawei participate in its 5G network.

“By all reports, a lot of the equipment from Huawei is not very good, and people like [former National Security Adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister] Richard Fadden have said that we should ban it, and if someone like that is saying that, it’s more than likely not a good idea to have Huawei.”

“We are of course integrated with the U.S., so the U.S. is leaning heavily on Canada,” states Christian Leuprecht, a political science professor at Queen’s Universityin Ontario.

“And it’s not just the Trump administration, it’s bipartisan. Both Democrats and Republicans, they know that once you have Huawei equipment in the Canadian network, it compromises the entire continent and the entire infrastructure.”

U.K.-China relationship under review

Recently, there have been calls from within the U.K.’s own Conservative party to block Huawei from any role in the country’s 5G network. The push comes as part of wider calls from within the party for the U.K. to reset its relations with Beijing over their lack of transparency during the COVID-19 outbreak.

All content posted on this site is protected under Free Speech. 5Galert.com is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. 5Galert.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. All trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.